Here goes...

[Jeff]

Paul said not to waste it so I wont.   

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In the year 1866, rumours of a devastating sea monster attacking ships in the Pacific Ocean have created apprehension and fear among sailors, disrupting shipping. Prof. Pierre M. Aronnax (Lukas) and his assistant, Conseil (Lorre), are on their way to Saigon but get stuck in San Francisco by the halting of ships. News reporters twist Aronnax's statements and make up an article illustrating the monster. The U.S. Government invites Aronnax onto an expedition to either prove or disprove the monster's existence.

The voyage on the U.S. warship is uneventful and frustrating at first, with only little boosts in crew morale thanks to singing and music of Ned Land (Douglas), who picked a fight at the beginning of the film, because he didn't believe in sea monsters.

Just after the captain cancels further searching, the "monster" is finally spotted. Trying to take it down with cannon fire, the ship is rammed, and Ned, Aronnax, and Conseil are thrown overboard. They find themselves abandoned as the warship, badly disabled and the crew struggling to save it, drifts away. All hope seems lost.

The three drift into a strange-looking metal vessel, and realize the "monster" is a man-made "submerging boat", that seems to have been deserted. Inside they find all sorts of obscure and interesting objects. Aronnax then looks through a massive viewing window and sees the crew, wearing underwater-suits and breathing devices, holding an undersea funeral of a shipmate killed during the battle.

The crew spots the intruders aboard their ship. The three castaways try to escape, but end up being captured. The captain introduces himself as Nemo, master of the Nautilus, and does not take kindly to visitors. "The sea brought you, the sea shall have you back", except Aronnax, whom he recognizes for his work and research. He tempts Aronnax to stay, but Aronnax prefers to share his companions' fate – thus passing a test of character.

Nemo's knowledge and technology make a strong impression on Aronnax. His companions, however, do not share his enthusiasm. Nemo takes them all on an underwater expedition to gather supplies, but Ned rather foolishly tries to salvage a treasure chest from a sunken wreck, almost getting attacked by a shark. Nemo lectures him, that he "cannot eat pieces of eight" and reminds him the greatest treasure of all is a "sound mind and a full belly". Aronnax gets more and more intrigued by Nemo's skills, especially what powers the Nautilus: atomic energy. Aronnax: "Such a secret could revolutionise the world!" Nemo: "Or destroy it".

After having travelled "10,000 leagues under the sea" [meaning, "10,000 leagues across the sea while submerged the entire voyage"], Nemo takes Arronax to the penal colony island of Rorapandi, where inmates used as slaves load a ship with minerals to produce ammunition, so "the world will die a little more" (Nemo). Nemo reveals he was once a prisoner himself, as was the crew of the Nautilus. At night, the Nautilus rams the ship and destroys it, killing the entire crew. Aronnax accuses Nemo of being a hypocrite, to which Nemo defends himself, stating his actions have just saved some thousand people from death in war. But it becomes obvious that revenge is also involved.

Ned, having seen fellow sailors murdered, has had his fill and spurs into action, sneaking into the captain's cabin to get the co-ordinates of Nemo's base of Vulcania. He puts messages in bottles, hoping somebody will pick these up and free him of his captivity.

Off the coast of New Guinea, the Nautilus gets stranded on a reef. Under the pretense of wanting to participate in a scientific survey, Ned asks to go ashore with Conseil, but he attempts escape, only to be chased back to the Nautilus by cannibals, who are repelled from the ship by electrical charges circulated on the Nautilus's skin. Because Nemo had him warned, he now puts Ned in a cell.

The tide floats the Nautilus free, but a warship is fast approaching and opening fire, causing a hull breach and momentarily loss of control, sending and sinking the Nautilus deeper than ever before, where it attracts the attentions of a giant squid.

The electric charge fails to repel the monster squid, so Nemo is forced to fight the beast on the surface in a stormy night. During the battle, Nemo is caught in one of the squid's tentacles, but Ned – who has freed himself from his cell – jumps to his rescue and saves his captor's life.

As the Nautilus approaches Vulcania, Nemo confides to Aronnax that he had considered using him as a mediator to share his secrets with the world. But it is too late. Vulcania is surrounded by warships that have deployed ground troops. Nemo takes this as an answer and decides to destroy his base rather than let his findings fall into wrong hands. But when returning to the Nautilus, he is struck and mortally wounded by an invader's bullet. After navigating the Nautilus out of Vulcania and settling on the ocean floor as its last resting place, Nemo announces, "I'm dying. And the Nautilus is dying with me." Loyal to Nemo to the very end, his entire crew declares that they will accompany their captain in death.

Nemo orders everybody to return to their quarters. Against joining in the mass suicide, Arronax, Conseil, and Ned are forcibly taken to their cabins. Ned fights back, escapes to the now deserted bridge, and manages to surface the Nautilus, hitting a reef in the process which begins to rapidly flood the ship. After rescuing Arronax and Conseil, the three escape in the launch/lifeboat. In his final moments, Nemo staggers to the viewing window, slumps against it, and looks at his beloved ocean one last time before he collapses and dies.

The companions witness the destruction of Vulcania in an incredible explosion, apparently atomic, creating an enormous mushroom cloud. The shockwave and the flooding takes the Nautilus back to its watery grave, and as the Nautilus disappears forever, Nemo's last words to Arronax echo: "There is hope for the future. And when the world is ready for a new and better life, all this will someday come to pass. In God's good time."

[Faron]

Jules Verne.  His was an amazing imagination, with so much of it eventually coming to pass.  I read mostof his books as a boy.  I guess I ought to read them again from a new (old guy) perspective

[Norm]

That's one of my favorite books of all time. 

[logwalker]

That was great Jeff, excellent synopsis. Never know what the ol' forum is going to serve up. Joe

[Jeff]

I'm at 20,015 leagues now...

[Sprucegum]

I read a lot of science fiction and believe everything I read- someday, somewhere it all comes true  :-\

The new stuff full of mind powers, scorcery, etc. scares me because I don't have the power.  :(  ;)